


Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

by JasonVoorhees



Series: You gotta talk about your feelings [1]
Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Astrotrain rescue brigade, Blitzwing wants his boyfriend back, M/M, some mentions of abuse by Galvatron, takes place at the end of the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-18 21:31:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20645984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasonVoorhees/pseuds/JasonVoorhees
Summary: Blitzwing, Octane, and Sandstorm head to Chaar with one mission -- bring Astrotrain back to Autobot City.





	Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

“He wants to go where?” Ultra Magnus raised his hands and lowered them slowly. “One at a time please.” He was, for some reason, surrounded by a group of over-enthusiastic cybertronians who had barged into the room and all begun talking at once.

Not a large group, only four—Sandstorm, Hot Rod, and the two Decepticon refugees Octane and Blitzwing.

“Chaar,” Blitzwing said immediately. “I want to go to Chaar, to get Astrotrain.”

“And I’ll help!” Octane added. “He’ll listen to both of us I bet.”

“Hold on, what do you mean, ‘get Astrotrain’?” Ultra Magnus shot a confused look at Hot Rod, who just shook his head and shrugged.

“They want to bring him back here to Autobot City,” Hot Rod said. “They asked me, but _I’m _not in charge anymore, thank Primus, so I told them to ask you.”

Of course Optimus was on Cybertron at the moment and had conveniently asked Ultra Magnus to handle things on Earth.

“And… why do you want to bring him here?” Ultra Magnus asked Blitzwing.

“Because,” Blitzwing said. “Galvatron mistreats him. He’ll be better off here.”

“Pretty sure Galvatron mistreats _everybody_,” Hot Rod said. “He’s nuts.”

“Yes… yes, but…” Blitzwing frowned. “But…”

“But we think Astrotrain would be willing to come here and stay with us,” Octane piped up. Sandstorm, who was hovering right by Octane’s shoulder, nodded in agreement.

“Um…” Ultra Magnus said. “So you want to help him get off Chaar and away from Galvatron, is that it?”

“Yes!” Blitzwing said eagerly. “Can we? We thought, we can have the autobot Cosmos drop us off, and Astrotrain will bring us back with him.”

“Sounds easy enough, right?” Hot Rod said. “I’m not going with them, though.”

“I… so it would be just you three?” Ultra Magnus asked. Three nods. “And you’re absolutely positive he’ll come back with you?” One nod and two half-hearted shrugs. Ultra Magnus sighed. “If you’re not positive, I don’t want to send you. You could end up stranded there.”

Blitzwing’s face fell and he turned to the Octane and Sandstorm. “No, he will! Please, I know he will.” Blitzwing spun back to face Ultra Magnus. “Please.”

Octane and Sandstorm exchanged a look. Sandstorm said, “Look, Ultra Magnus, Blitzwing really misses Astrotrain, and he’s really very sure that he’ll come back with us. So even if we’re not quite as sure, we’re willing to go.”

“…All right,” Ultra Magnus said. “You can go—”

“Thank you!” Blitzwing cried, grabbing one of Ultra Magnus’ hands and pumping it up and down. “Thank you!!”

“—but I’m trusting you to come back. Or else I’ll be explaining to Optimus Prime why we’ll be rescuing you from Decepticon central.”

“We will,” Sandstorm promised. “One way or another.”

A short while later, the three triple-changers boarded Cosmos and flew off for Chaar. Ultra Magnus watched them go, really hoping that he hadn’t just made a very bad decision.

“Worried?” Hot Rod said from beside him.

“A little,” Ultra Magnus admitted.

“Well, there’s only one thing I’d be worrying about,” Hot Rod said, patting Ultra Magnus on the shoulder. “And that’s the low intelligence level of that whole trio.”

“Hah,” said Ultra Magnus. “You’re one to talk.”

“Ehhh, whatever.”

“All right,” Cosmos said, nervousness clear in his voice. “This is where we part ways.” He opened his hatch to let the triple-changers disembark.

“Don’t worry about us, Cosmos,” Sandstorm said. “Just be careful going back, okay?”

“Yeah, we’ll see you soon!” Octane said. He waved enthusiastically as Cosmos flew off.

“Okay,” Blitzwing said impatiently. “Let’s go find Astrotrain.” He and Octane both knew where the Decepticon headquarters was… although it wasn’t much of anything. The planet was still a wasteland, nothing but rocks and dirt and the black remains of what was once organic life.

The trio crept along as quietly as they could, and eventually heard voices ahead. Grumbling and complaining, as was standard amongst the Decepticon troops. At least they weren’t starving anymore.

“So what do we do?” Sandstorm whispered as he, Octane, and Blitzwing huddled behind a large rock.

Blitzwing peered around the edge of the boulder. “I—I’m not sure where he’d be.”

“Well, we can’t exactly wander around looking,” Sandstorm said. “What’s your plan?”

“Uh,” said Blitzwing. “That was my plan.”

“What?” Sandstorm’s eyes widened, but before he could get too panicky, Octane grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Octane said. “_I _have a plan. C’mon.” He stood, pulling Sandstorm along and gesturing for Blitzwing to follow. They ducked and dashed, staying out of sight and working their way along the edge of the Decepticon settlement. Octane did seem to have a destination in mind, which calmed Sandstorm’s nerves somewhat.

Eventually they arrived at a cave and ducked in. Before Sandstorm could ask what they were doing in there, Octane said, “Hellooooo!”

“Shhh!” Blitzwing hissed, then jumped a mile when someone stepped out of the cave’s darkness. “Swindle?!”

Swindle wasted no time pointing his gun at the trio. “No funny stuff.”

Octane put his hands up. “Nope, nope. Just top-tier-quality energon for you if you tell us what we need to know.”

“Yeah, okay, let me see it.”

Octane quickly produced a large cube of energon and offered it to Swindle, who took a small taste.

“Hmm, that really is the good stuff.” Swindle snatched the cube from Octane’s hands. “Whaddya wanna know?”

“Where is Astrotrain right now?”

Swindle blinked, shifting the energon cube under his arm. “That’s it? Astrotrain just got back from some mission like five minutes ago, so he’s probably reporting to Galvatron right now.”

“We need to see him,” Blitzwing said. “Do you know where he might go after?”

“Nah,” said Swindle. “But I could tell him to meet you… if you wanna pay up some more.”

Blitzwing glanced at Octane, who grinned sheepishly. “Unfortunately, that’s all the energon I have to spare.”

“That was a really good plan, though,” Sandstorm said. “I’m proud of you.” Octane beamed.

“Ugh,” said Swindle. “Get outta here.”

It wasn’t hard to pinpoint where Galvatron was; his shrieking could be heard half a mile away. It was getting close that was the problem, since he was accompanied by Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps.

They couldn’t tell what he was yelling about, exactly; something about Autobots, and him being Galvatron, and everyone else being useless. His screaming was punctuated by heavy blows and clanks that meant he was probably attacking all of his own troops again, Cyclonus included.

And probably Astrotrain included as well. As they crouched behind another rock, listening to the ruckus, Blitzwing’s fists were clenched and trembling. Then they heard Galvatron screech, “Get out of my sight!” and another solid _bang_, and a surprised yelp that Blitzwing recognized, and two seconds later he was out from behind the rock and running.

“Oh—oh shit,” Octane said, and he and Sandstorm took off right behind their friend.

It was pure luck that they had, that’s all. Because when Octane and Sandstorm stumbled into the scene right after Blitzwing, they could have been dead. But Galvatron’s tantrum had driven all the sweeps away; Cyclonus had been knocked out cold by his own beloved commander; Astrotrain was curled on the ground clutching his head.

Galvatron was, by his own doing, the only one still standing, and Blitzwing threw his entire body at the Decepticon leader and tackled him to the ground.

“_You!?_” Galvatron spat. “_Traitor! _Treacherous _scum!_” He tried to transform, but Blitzwing kicked his gun clear out of his hands before he got the chance. Sandstorm dove and caught the gun, and before he could think about it fired it right at Galvatron’s head.

Galvatron screamed and crumpled to the ground, where he rolled around groaning.

“Blitzwing!” Octane said. “Come on! He’s only stunned—we have to go—” He was trying to haul a very disoriented Astrotrain off the ground. Sandstorm dropped Galvatron’s gun and hurried over to help.

“Blitzwing?” Astrotrain mumbled as Blitzwing ran over to join them.

“Yeah, I’m—I’m here.” The three of them helped Astrotrain up and herded him away from Galvatron as fast as they could.

“Wait,” said Astrotrain, stumbling as the other three pulled him along. “What’s going on? Why are you here?”

None of them replied right away, they kept running. Astrotrain was obviously confused, but he kept with them. Finally, when they had put a good distance between them and the rest of the Decepticons, they stopped, and sat heavily on the ground.

Octane and Sandstorm were gripping each other’s hands tightly. “That was scary,” Sandstorm said. “Let’s not do that again.” Octane nodded firmly and kissed Sandstorm’s knuckles.

Astrotrain was sitting with his head in his hands, and Blitzwing knelt in front of him. “Are you okay?” Blitzwing asked.

“I… yeah. Galvatron just… I don’t know why he hit me. But why are you here?” Astrotrain raised his head. “I thought he banished you.”

“He did,” Blitzwing said. “But I—well, I’ve been staying with Octane and Sandstorm in Autobot City on earth. And it’s a lot better than working with Galvatron.”

Astrotrain blinked at him.

“Uh… would you come back to earth with us?”

“What?” Astrotrain said, baffled. “Why?”

“To get away from Chaar,” Blitzwing said, gesturing around them. “To get away from Galvatron. He’s—it’s not right, how he treats everyone. How he hits you.”

“Well, I… I don’t know why he does that,” Astrotrain said. “I can’t seem to do anything right, I suppose.”

“No!” Blitzwing said sharply. “It’s not you! He’s horrible, and I can’t stand that he just… he makes you think that. Please come back with us. Please?”

“I…” Astrotrain closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m still confused, why are you here?”

“Astrotrain,” Octane said, “We’re here for _you_.” Octane and Sandstorm scooted over so they were seated next to the other two. “To get you away from Galvatron.”

There were a few minutes of silence as Astrotrain absorbed that. “You three came all the way out here for me?” Nods. “I don’t even know this Autobot.”

“Sandstorm’s here for moral support,” Octane said. “And this was Blitzwing’s idea anyhow.”

Astrotrain thought about that a little more. “Blitzwing?” he said. “You came all the way out here just to get me?”

“Yeah!” Blitzwing said. “So will you come with us?”

“You mean give you a ride? If I say no you’ll be stuck here.” Astrotrain frowned. “But you came out here anyway?”

“Yes,” Blitzwing said. “Yes, I did, we did.”

“So when you tackled Galvatron earlier,” Astrotrain went on, “that was for me? You did all this just for me?”

“Yes!”

“But why all that for me?”

“You idiot,” Blitzwing said, “I’d do _anything_ for you!”

What followed that declaration was more silence; Astrotrain again taking his time thinking about it, Octane and Sandstorm being tactfully quiet, and Blitzwing waiting, waiting for an answer.

Eventually, Astrotrain said, “Okay. I’ll go with you back to earth.”

“Hey Ultra Magnus,” Kup said, “We got Astrotrain en route to Autobot City. All three passengers alive and accounted for.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” said Ultra Magnus, who had been second-guessing his decision ever since they’d left. Blitzwing _had_ been very confident that Astrotrain would come back with them, and he supposed now that he should have trusted him a little more, but he didn’t really know Blitzwing all that well.

Well, that didn’t matter now. Their little mission was a success. Ultra Magnus watched them land outside. After the others exited and Astrotrain transformed back to his robot mode, he and Blitzwing walked together—very closely together, Blitzwing’s hand on the back of Astrotrain’s arm, gently leading him into the city—and Ultra Magnus smiled. He’d definitely made the right call.


End file.
